SUMMARISED ESSAY ON THE PROJECT OF HOSTING THE 2008 UNDER 20 WOMEN’S FIFA WORLD CUP BY THE CHILE GOVERNMENT. Based on an extract from a journal.
When in 1990 Chile became a democratic state, the Ministry of Public Infrastructure (MOP) in line with the country’s sustained growth and development embarked on the rehabilitation of the decayed public infrastructure. This was achieved through private concessions and working closer with the local city governments. With this in mind, the country led by President Michelle Bachelet aimed at attracting major sporting events. Consequently Chile won the right to host FIFA under 20 women’s world cup. This would be a national project that had presidential backing and priority.
An unprecedented challenge however arose in that of the four cities selected to as possible hosts none had stadiums that complied with FIFA’s regulations. Thus the task to build four stadiums from the ground with a timeline of nine months was set. Though the exponential growth in investor funds took care of the project’s financing there was a great deficit in experienced and certified project managers to run the complex projects with aggressive deadlines. The MOP thus needed to strengthen the human capital for the project’s efficiency.
The solution for the MOP lay in replacing the outmoded project management principles used for past projects with modern techniques and practices by adopting a structure based on standards from the Project Management Institute (PMI). In the process MOP sought internationally ways to maximize the project and human capital value. It met with PMI leaders who emphasized the significance of elevating MOP’s Project management office (PMO) to a strategic role within the organization in line with the MOP’s strategic goals. In 2006, the executive secretary of the project management committee for the MOP, attended PMI global congress